Sony hires former US Homeland Security official

Mike Luttrell, 6th September 2011

Sony of all companies could use a technological security overhaul, and it just hired someone who might be able to do that.
The manufacturer has brought on board one Philip Reitinger, who previously served as the director for the US National Cyber Security Center and executive director for the US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center. It was a post in the office of the US Department of Homeland Security.

As part of the position, Reitinger will not only beef up Sony's internal security channels but he will also look back at the massive attacks that crippled some of its online networks earlier this year.

Reuters quoted Sony as saying, "Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment. We are looking to bolster our network security even further."

Earlier this year, Sony took the Playstation Network completely offline for around a month, with some services taing even longer to restore. This was in response to a hacker or group of hackers who managed to infiltrate the service's back end and gain access to nearly unfettered personal data of the millions of registered PSN users.

It affected not only Sony, but also third-party publishers who were relying on the PS3 online network to be functional in order to meet their own profits and deadlines. Of course, gamers were also highly upset, leading to a massive decline in sales of PS3 games and hardware.

It will go down in the annals of gaming history as one of the biggest dark holes of this generation.